The Normal Routine
by Naoko-Miharu
Summary: A bit AU. A response to one of Beeria's challenges. Oneshot about Cloud and Aerith set in different rooms of a house. [Clorith]


**Disclaimer: **This is a response to one of **Beeria**'s challenges. I guess it's a bit AU.

This one-shot is about Cloud and Aerith set in different rooms of a house.

The settings include: The Bedroom, Bathroom, Sitting Room (Living Room), Office, and the Cleaning Closet.

I don't own Cloud or Aerith; they belong to Square Enix.

This took me a couple of days to think and to write, and I hope you enjoy it!

(I personally thought it was preeeetty cheesy but I tried my best xD)

-Miharu(:

* * *

_---The Bedroom-_

* * *

It was in the morning, about nine A.M. The time when Aerith wakes up everyday.

Soft eyes flutters open to see a dark room of grey monochromatic shades.

Aerith looks around, bright warm jade eyes adjusting the large bedroom in the home of her and Cloud's.

She pulls off the warm down blanket off her frail delicate body, letting the winter's bitter cold air nip at her skin.

Aerith slowly and silently like a fox, slides off the bed, not waking up _him_ up.

She glides over to the large bedroom window and slides the dark scarlet curtains aside, letting some light into the dark room.

Aerith looks outside and it's snowing, the world turned into white emptiness overnight.

Aerith smiles a bit, knowing the bushes and flowers outside withstood the cold, saving her a tad of trouble in rescuing it from the snow.

She opens the curtains a bit wider so the tints of morning light can swallow up the grey shades of yesterday's night.

Aerith turns to look at the large bed and sees Cloud who is still sleeping, faced the opposite direction from the window.

'He never gets enough sleep.' she thought as she walked over to Cloud's side of the bed.

Cloud is curled up within the covers and Aerith can't help but smile again. He looked so peaceful when he slept.

She kneels and puts her head right next to his ear, his soft spiked blond hair tickling her.

"Wake up sleepyhead." Aerith whispers, giggling a bit.

It was their normal routine, for her to first wake up and for her to be his alarm clock.

Cloud didn't budge, his breathing increased then decreased, and then stayed the same.

Aerith pouts a bit then lightly kisses him on the cheek.

"It's time to get up; the day's calling to us."

She gets up and heads into the bathroom, right across the bedroom to change from her sleepwear into her daily clothing.

As Aerith shuts the door, Cloud's eyes flutter open, his aquamarine sky-blue eyes darting from one end to another, adjusting to the sight and the morning light.

He groans then yawns, getting off the bed, slipping on his slippers, exiting the bedroom and also heading into the bathroom.

* * *

_---The Bathroom-

* * *

_

Cloud opens the bathroom door and sees Aerith folding up her sleepwear. She usually wears her pink dress along with her red jacket, but today she wore a light pink elbow length sleeved dress that reached up to her shins and a thin pink silk scarf around her neck.

"Done already?" He asks jokingly.

"Were you expecting more?" She jokes back and laughs, while taking her red comb and starts combing her long silky smooth ebony brown hair.

No knots in sight, Aerith was perfect in the eyes of Cloud, and to everyone else too.

Carefree, sweet, charismatic, helpful, wise, and just a girl with huge dreams.

Aerith walks near the door and takes out a hair band out of the door knob that usually hangs there and ties up the end of her braided hair.

Cloud turns on the faucet and washes his face with warm water.

It was always cold during the winter and the warm water always makes your hands want to stay under it longer.

"Cloud, would you like me to wash your sleepwear?" Aerith asks, pointing to his shirt.

"W-what?" Cloud asks dumbly, shutting of the faucet.

"You know your shirt," Aerith says as she stood behind him, wrapping her delicate arms around his neck and resting her forehead on his back. "You've been wearing that for while and it needs a bit of washing."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Cloud says, thinking of how dumb he sounded.

Aerith stands back and smiles. He loved her smile, it was filled with such happiness and reassurance, and he couldn't help but smile too.

He unbuttons his shirt, sliding it off when the last button was undone. Cloud always wore an undershirt; white, made of cotton.

He hands her the shirt and Aerith gladly takes it, folding it and putting it on top of her own sleepwear.

Cloud hung his face towel and turned to Aerith who opened the bathroom door and slid out.

"Go get ready, by the time you're downstairs I'll have your breakfast and paper in the sitting room."

She turned around, a glimpse of her braided hair was seen before it bounced away, along with Aerith who can be heard walking down the stairs to the first floor.

Cloud sighs with content and returns to getting ready for the day.

* * *

_---The Sitting Room-_

* * *

Aerith had already prepared breakfast; buttermilk pancakes with natural syrup on a large chocobo plate and orange juice in a short and wide glass cup. She places his breakfast on a dark blue tray and places it down on the glass marble table in the sitting room. She smiles with accomplishment and returns to the kitchen to make herself some oatmeal.

As she finishes, she walks towards the sitting room, not noticing Cloud who has finished changing and is now sitting in one of the sofas.

When she looked up she was startled for a moment, but relaxed and sat down next to him. He was wearing a black wool sweater with blue jeans, his blond hair messy and untamed.

'He smells nice, must be from his new cologne.' Aerith thought.

"Did I startle you?" Cloud asks.

"N-no, not really, it's just that you changed a bit faster than yesterday." Aerith says, chuckled, as she stirs her oatmeal around with her spoon. "I'm sorry if I did." He says before opening up the paper.

Aerith took a slurp of her oatmeal, amazed how she can prepare something as simple as oatmeal and pancakes. She wasn't very good at cooking, but she knew the basics, and it was fine with her. Cloud never complained, and she didn't either.

This was their normal routine, get up, get ready and eat breakfast. The couple enjoyed each other's company; they enjoyed each other, that's all they needed.

After Cloud read his paper and ate his breakfast. He and Aerith talked to each other. They talked about the past, what was going on in the world, great times they had with their friends and family and other things they wanted to get out of their chest. Aerith would laugh here and there and Cloud would just smile.

Aerith loved when Cloud smiled, it made her have butterflies. It made her love him more each time he did so.

After they both finished their breakfast, they lazily rested their heads on one another.

"It's a blizzard out there." Aerith says, noticing the snow reached up to the bottom window. Aerith gets up and walks towards the window, gazing out the front yard.

Cloud also stands up, slipping on his slippers and walking towards the window.

"Yeah, it is." Cloud says as he puts an arm over Aerith's shoulder.

She leans closer to him, the snow falling heavily, piling snow on top of snow.

After a moment Cloud took his arm off of Aerith and turns up the heater beside the basement door.

Aerith closes the curtains and turns around to face him, "So, off to work now?" she asks, walking over to the table, and stacking her bowl of just finished oatmeal on top of the plate, picking up the tray.

"I guess so." Cloud says sheepishly.

"Okay, I'll be cleaning the basement too, I won't be much of a burden, if that's alright with you." Aerith says, as she returns from the kitchen.

"Of course it's alright Aerith." Cloud says, as he opens the basement door.

Aerith nods her head and gets her towels and the bucket for another day of work.

* * *

_---The Office-_

* * *

Cloud walks down the stairs and into the huge basement, or his so called office.

It was pretty messy, boxes stacked on top of another, an old sofa lying in the corner.

The lighting was dim and the basement smelt of rain but it was pretty warm, not as cold as people say their basements are in the winter.

Cloud strolls over to his desk, takes a seat in his chair and flips open a folder containing a stack of work papers.

Aerith who has gotten her supplies ready, carefully walks down the stairs, not wanting to spill some of the water in the bucket.

When she reaches the bottom stair, she walks over to the corner and starts to mop the floor. Small strokes then back strokes then the same pattern over again.

Aerith and Cloud would sometimes steal a glance when the two of them worked and slightly blush.

A half an hour later, Aerith throws the towel into the bucket and starts to rearrange the boxes which were somewhat abandoned when they moved here.

When Aerith was about to move one of the boxes she accidentally drops it.

Picture frames and old photos spilled out of the box.

Cloud immediately gets up to help her.

"Cloud, you don't have to help me, you have a lot of work to do." Aerith says, picking up photos.

"Aerith, it's alright, my work can wait for now." Cloud said, picking up some more photos.

Aerith didn't say anything, she knew Cloud worked for hours and hours until midnight and was worried he wouldn't finish. Before Aerith could snap out of her thoughts, Cloud held up a picture to her.

"Do you remember this?" Cloud asks, giving her the photo.

She takes the photo in her hands, and studies it. It was a picture of her and Cloud, sitting next to each other on swings, back against the camera, and her head on his shoulder.

"I do." Aerith whispers, "This was taken a long time ago. I can't believe we still have this."

"I can't believe it either." Cloud agrees, as he stands up and stacks the last photos on top of the box. Aerith gets up and places the photo on top of the stack.

"I remember that day as if it were yesterday." She says, "We had so much fun, playing near the beach, running in the sands. Our parents took us to a playground when we came home, and they took this picture."

Cloud thinks for a moment and looks at her, "I remember it too, we were so young then."

Aerith laughs, "Aren't we still young now?" Cloud laughs too and returns to his desk.

"Hmm, you better get back to work; I'll be upstairs putting these away and re-organizing the closet. Call me if you need anything okay?" Aerith says, putting a hand on his shoulder as she goes back up the stairs, her footsteps fading as she reached the last stair.

* * *

_---The Cleaning Closet-_

* * *

When Aerith reached the first floor, she went to the kitchen and opened up the bottom cabinet to put away the bucket and to dry the towels. She looks around the kitchen which was spotless and empty.

'This house is too big for us.' Aerith thought, as she walks over to the cleaning closet, reorganizing the mops and the sponges. The cleaning closet was a walk in closet supposedly used for storage, but Aerith thought it would be best for it to be a cleaning closet to store their supplies in.

While Aerith was in tune with cleaning and organizing, she hummed along as she worked, a strange slow melodic tune, consisting of only 3 notes. She used to sing it with Cloud when they were younger.

She then pulls out some dirty and ripped rags and carefully threw it away in the garbage can. This was their normal routine, the same one almost each day, for her to clean the first floor as Cloud worked like a work dog in the basement. Aerith was worried that Cloud worked too much and too long for him to handle. They didn't have enough time to spend with each other. Aerith sighs and continues to work, trying to put on a new light bulb to replace the old one that provided the closet's only source of light. When she finished screwing on the light bulb, she stepped off the stool and took it back to the kitchen table, with the other wooden stools. She threw away the empty box that used to hold the new light bulb, which was now shining with extreme brightness, lighting up the entire room of cleaning supplies.

She passed the kitchen window, and stopped to look outside, the blizzard still snowing heavily. 'It must be around eight inches deep.' Aerith thought to herself as she walked back into the closet. As she was about to enter, the door slammed shut on her, hurting her back and making her land on the plush carpet.

Aerith gets up and rubs her back, and tries to open the door. She jiggles the knob and twists it back and forth. The door wouldn't budge.

"This isn't good." She whispers aloud as she digs though the tool bag in the top shelf of the small cabinet in the back of the closet. She pulls out a wrench and a random key card and walks back to the door and tries to open it once more.

"Why did they make it so the lock was on the outside?" She thought, pouting as she slides the key card through the crack of the door.

The key card slid out of the crack, not affecting the door in any way. Aerith sighs with defeat and slouches while holding the door knob as she twists it once more.

Meanwhile downstairs, Cloud closes his folder and rubs his temples, tired and stressed out. He gets up out of his black chair and goes upstairs, taking a quick break before diving back into folders and piles and piles of work.

Back upstairs, Aerith tries one last time to open the door with the screwdriver and the key card. The door didn't take any effect from it. She then bangs her fists at the wooden door, hoping that Cloud would hear it.

When Cloud reaches the first floor he hears banging coming near the kitchen, and decides to check it out.

"Cloud! Cloud, are you there? Can you hear me, I'm locked in!" Aerith yells, as she bangs the door some more. 'This isn't good, not even the slightest bit!' She says in her mind. As she was about to fling the screwdriver and the key card at the door, it flies open and Aerith looks up.

"Aerith?" Cloud asks, laughing, "What are you doing on the floor…? Inside the cleaning closet to be specific." He looks at Aerith sitting on the plush floor, holding a screw driver and a key card; all the different possibilities of her holding the items rushed through his mind.

Aerith just pouts and stands up, straightening her dress and starts to explain how the door closed on her. "You know, you're right we should get a knob with locks on the both—" Cloud begins before the door slams shut, bringing him in the walk in closet, and falling on top of Aerith. "Are you alright?" Cloud says recovering from the fall.

Aerith starts laughing, "Hahaha, seems a bit like déjà vu don't you think?"

Cloud flips over and is now facing her.

"Déjà vu?" Cloud asks.

"Don't you remember? How we met and all?" She says, stifling a laugh. Cloud thinks for a moment and says, "I do, but it was a blur…"

Aerith smiles and sits up, making Cloud automatically get off of her. He leans his back against the door and studies Aerith, from her long chocolate brown hair to her flirtatious smile she gives every so often.

She cocks one of her eyebrows and tilts a smile, "Hey, what are you thinking about right now?"

Cloud looks at her in the eyes, "Well, I'm thinking about how I'm the luckiest person alive to be with someone as special as you."

She smiles, a slight blush paints across her cheeks.

"What are you thinking about?" He asks, crossing his legs. "Mm, nothing really, just you." She says. Cloud puts on a tiny smile and gets up.

"I-I guess I should get back to work." He says, trying to open the door, which is open this time.

"Wait." She says, getting up, "You work too hard. You need a break once a while, I'm worried."

"I should be saying the same thing to you." He says, turning to face her. "Working around the house every single day, it must be tiring."

"You know, you're right. We both work too hard." Aerith agrees.

"Hey why don't we make a promise? Starting today, we'll have time to our work and time for us to spend together. What do you say?"

Cloud thinks for a moment, "That sounds pretty good to me."

She grins and opens the door, with Cloud following. "You stay there, I wanna bring something." Cloud tilts his head and heads back in the closet and waits for _her_ to return. Moments later Aerith returns with a tray.

"Smores?" He asks.

"Yup, smo-res!" Aerith chirps, still smiling as she places the tray on the floor and slowly closes the door.

This would be their normal routine, to get up, eat breakfast, go to work, and to have the rest of the day together to fool around, to have a great time, and just to be in each other's arms.


End file.
